


Taking In The Scenery

by 1Temmie_Official1



Series: Northern Downpour Sends Its Love [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Bisexual Zuko (Avatar), Brown Haired Yue (Avatar), Eric Projects Onto Zuko, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Firebending & Firebenders, First Dates, First Kiss, Getting Together, I only rated this t because i guess there's swearing but like they're teenagers you know what i mean, I use hand holding more than I probably should because I am a touch starved gay and zuko is too, I'm Sorry, Oblivious Zuko (Avatar), Theater Nerd Zuko (Avatar), Title Based on a Panic! at the Disco Song, Touch-Starved Zuko (Avatar), Trans Male Character, Trans Zuko (Avatar), Waterbender Yue (Avatar), Yue (Avatar) Lives, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, all of the series is, and it shows, author is a theatre nerd, because zuko is touch starved, believe me, except they're together so, excessive description of hand holding, there is so much goddamnhand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26857696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1Temmie_Official1/pseuds/1Temmie_Official1
Summary: Yue arrives at the Fire Nation and teaches Zuko about cultural immersion. Zuko teaches Yue about theatre.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Yue/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Northern Downpour Sends Its Love [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957609
Comments: 13
Kudos: 68





	Taking In The Scenery

Zuko had been waiting by the docks since he received Yue's letter. Call him lovesick, but he was just excited to see her.

She wasn't like anyone he had ever met before. She was nobility, and certainly acted the part, but there was something about her that drew Zuko to her. The way she smiled seemed to light up the room. She was mesmerizing in everything she did. Even though he had only stayed at the Northern Water Tribe for a week, the starstruck feeling never left him. She told him about the traditions and customs of her people, about herself too. How she felt that the world couldn't accept her as a person, only as a princess. How the only way she would be remembered was if she sacrificed herself. And how Zuko told her he sometimes felt the same.

So he watched the horizon, waiting for the Northern Water Tribe to arrive. He knew it was almost improper for him to be here but he was... excited. It had felt like there was an emptiness in his heart ever since he left the Northern Water Tribe. It had been almost a month since he saw Yue, but he still felt a rush of joy when he got a letter from her. Was this what having a friend was like? Well, Zuko did have friends. Sort of. Mei and Ty Lee were friends, well they were more of Azula's friends. But he and Mei had fake-dated once to fool Mei's father so that probably counted as friendship. 

_Wait. Could this be_ -

His thoughts were interrupted by something on the horizon, near Azulon's gate. The Northern Water Tribe! There was a small fleet, maybe three large ships, but it was definitely getting closer. There was someone on the forecastle, waving wildly. Zuko stood up and squinted, using his good eye to try to see-

"Yue!!" Zuko cheered, and he could already feel the stupid grin he had on his face. He waved back just enthusiastically.

"I see you're happy about the Northern Water Tribe arriving, nephew." Zuko jumped at the voice beside him. He whipped his head to see Uncle with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Uncle-Fire Lord Iroh." Zuko put on his best look of composure, starkly reminded that this was, in fact, a business visit. (What even was cultural immersion, and what did Yue have to do with it?) He smoothed out his robes, which had been rumpled from sitting down for almost an hour. Uncle adjusted his headpiece, which, thankfully, hadn't fallen into too much disarray.

The boats were now docking, and Zuko was the look, the very definition of composure and gracefulness and royalty ( _don't have the stupid grin on your face-_ ), ready to have a diplomatic meeting with the Northern Water Tribe.

Then Yue walked off the boat, her hair like he had seen the first time, but her outfit was something distinctly for warmer weather. The sash was a bit more forward than the Southern style, but it was something recognizable as Water Tribe. It was still as regal as her first outfit but-

The stupid grin was back on his face again, wasn't it?

Yue had a small smile on her face as she bowed to him. "Crown Prince Zuko."

Zuko's mouth felt dry, and this time it wasn't from the heat. (Come to think of it his face was getting hot too, so it actually could have been the heat.) She was just as beautiful as the last time he had seen her. He suddenly remembered that he had to bow back, and he did so, quickly. "Princess Yue." He greeted with his royalty voice.

Uncle clapped a hand on his shoulder, startling him. "Nephew, it would be great if you could show Princess Yue around the capital city." He said, hinting at something. Zuko did not know what this something was.

Zuko straightened. "Sure, Un- I mean, Fire Lord Iroh."

Zuko could have sworn that Chief Arnook chuckled, but when Zuko looked at him, he hid it with a cough. Zuko narrowed his one good eye at him.

Yue grabbed his hand, surprising him and breaking his stare. "So! Where are we going to go?"

Zuko walked with her, leading her off the docks and into the city for a while. "Well, uh, I heard how you wanted to see ' _Love Amongst the Dragons_ ', and it turns out there was a theatre group in the capital so I got us all tickets." He realized with a jolt that Yue didn't have gloves, and her bare hand was on his. This should not have been a big deal. She was just a (beautiful, wonderful, amazing) girl, and he was just a (scarred, weird, bad) guy, and they were holding hands. This is no big deal.

"What do you mean 'us all'?" Yue asked. They had made it to the actual streets of the city

Zuko flushed. "Well, I mean- you remember my friends Mei and Ty Lee?" He said, feeling awkward for no reason. Yue nodded. "Yeah, well, uh, I invited them too."

"That's nice." Yue's voice was strange. Almost disappointed or confused. Zuko dismissed it as his imagination.

Zuko spotted what he was looking for."There's this food that I think you'd like. They're called Fire Flakes and they're kinda spicy, but I don't think they're that bad," He admitted, guiding Yue to the Fire Flake stand. He held up two fingers to the (slightly shocked) person at the stand.

Two pouches of Fire Flakes were placed in front of the two. Yue turned it around in her free hand. "It doesn't look that spicy. Do I just eat it?"

"Yeah. There's a bench over there, we can sit down. If you want."

For the next while or so, all they did was talk. Yue discovered that Fire Flakes were, in fact, very spicy, especially for people who weren't used to the intense spices of Fire Nation cuisine. Zuko ate her fire flakes with no problem. Usually, they were spicer, he had explained. Yue was appalled.

Zuko lost track of subjects to talk about, and Yue probably didn't want to hear Zuko infodump about turtleducks or the construction of certain battleships in the earlier fleets. _What was that one game that Ty Lee used to do... oh yeah! 20 questions!_ "20 questions." He said, eloquently.

Yue was confused. "What?"

"Do you want to play it?" Zuko elaborated. Did she not have 20 questions in the Northern Water Tribe? Strange.

Yue seemed to grasp what Zuko was asking, finally. "Is that the game where you ask 10 questions to a person and they answer with 10 more?"

"Kind of, a person asks a question and another person answers. The answerer," that was a weird word to say, "then asks a question, and bam, you go back and forth. That's how you play."

Yue shrugged. "Sure. Do you want to go first?"

It was in this exact moment that Zuko realized that he had no question to ask Yue. "What's your favourite colour?" Smooth move, Zuko. She thinks you're an idiot, now. Great job.

To his surprise, Yue smiled and laughed a bit. "I like yellow, when you see the sunlight reflect off the snow it makes this beautiful shade of golden-yellow." Zuko smiled.

"That's nice. Mine is brown." _Like her eyes._

"Hm, are you a bender?"

"Yeah." Zuko answered plainly. _Good job, genius._ "Are you?"

Yue nodded. "Yeah, I haven't practiced much but I'm getting kind of good. Okay, let me think of a question."

Yue pondered for a moment. "What's your favourite animal?" Zuko flushed. Should he make something up? The real answer was embarrassing, well would Yue even care-

"Yeah, Zuko, what _is_ your favourite animal?" A familiar, sarcastic voice interrupted. Zuko's face went even redder than before. Yue was hiding a smile behind her hand. Mei was standing behind them both, Ty Lee beside her.

"Yue, this is Mei." Zuko introduced. "And this is Ty Lee." He gestured to each of them in turn. Ty Lee waved. Mei nodded in greeting.

Yue stuck out a hand to shake before bowing. "Zuko wrote to me about you. Are we going to see _Love Among the Dragons_ together?"

" _Love Amongst the Dragons_." Zuko corrected.

"Ignore him, he's a theatre nerd." Mei interrupted, powering on despite Zuko's protest. "The play starts in 20 minutes."

Zuko looked up at the sky, eyes tracing to the sun's position, which was decidedly farther along than Zuko thought it was. "It's been that long already?"

Mei rolled her eyes. "Yeah, while you were talking with your girlfriend-"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Zuko shouted louder than he meant. Yue had that same disappointed-sad look on her face again. Again, probably Zuko's imagination.

"-your not-girlfriend, we were getting the seats. We're going to be late unless you guys hurry up- wait." Mei looked around. "Where's Ty Lee?"

-

Ty Lee had ended up trying to climb a tree, to which Mei had to get her down from, but they made it to the theatre in the nick of time, though they did end up having to sit in the back.

Mei and Ty Lee sat in front of them and they were sharing a bag of popped rice-corn. It was quite romantic. Zuko sat beside Yue, carefully setting their bag of popped rice-corn between them so it wouldn't spill. The announcer's voice, carried through a megaphone, rang throughout the theatre, and the lights dimmed. "From the great works of Kawatake Mokuami, comes the world-famous... ' _Love Amongst the Dragons_ '!" The curtains opened and the Dragon Emperor stepped out. The murmurs that had been present before silenced and the orchestral pit began the music. (Wonderful soundtrack, and it certainly set the stage for the mood and theme, not to mention the lines of the stage drew the eye naturally to the frankly masterful costume work. You could clearly tell what the Dragon Emperor's personality was simply from his costuming, not to mention the actor's great performance of how he was standing that portrayed exactly how the Dragon Emperor felt about himself.)

Okay. Zuko tried to be quiet. He really did. But there was just a certain way that the tension between the Dragon Emperor and Dragon Emperess that made the story another layer better. Not to mention the Dark Water Spirit had started being portrayed as a whiny, stereotypical villain without any of the trickster-spirit personality that he was supposed to be seen as (when Zuko's Blue Spirit escapades were more in character than the play (though Zuko's Blue Spirit escapades were actually very in character), that was a big red flag). So he commented on it. Then elaborated. 

He stopped when Mei put a hand on his mouth. "Do you ever shut up?" She hissed. "The play is almost over, be quiet." Zuko did not miss the glint of a knife in her sleeve. He decided to be quiet. Yue's hand was on the bench beside him. They had held hands before, he could totally hold her hand now. Even though Zuko had been almost shot with lightning before (Azula as a pre-teen was terrifying), nothing electrified him more than when he put his hand on her's. It reminded him of the sunset they watched. But this felt more public like he was saying something to the world with a simple action. Yue intertwined her hand with his. Zuko was suddenly very happy that he was in the row behind Mei and Ty Lee because otherwise, they would have seen the blush on his face even in the dim light of the theatre.

Zuko was outraged at the ending. He thought this was a good theatre group but _no_ , they just _had_ to make there be another dragon character that had gone _completely!_ unmentioned until it was convenient at the end. Dragon soulmates? _Dragon soulmates?!_ He expressed this to the group, to which he got strange looks from the other theatre-goers. The sky had already turned a dark purple with the setting sun, and firebenders had already lit the street lamps. 

"Mei and I are getting Fire Flakes, we can meet up by the fountain in a bit," Ty Lee said. She motioned to the streets and closing shops. "You two can go explore and talk about the play!" They were left with only themselves and their intertwined hands.

"So, how'd you like the play?" Zuko asked, restraining himself from ranting about it more.

Yue shrugged. "It was okay, I thought the ending didn't make sense." Zuko bit his tongue to keep his analysis of the play a strictly _internal_ monologue.

"Yeah." He said. They walked in comfortable silence.

"So, what _is_ your favourite animal?"

"It's kind of embarrassing..." Zuko admitted. Yue motioned for him to go on. "They're turtleducks. I have a pond at the palace, my mom and I used to sit there and feed them when I was little."

"That's cute!" Zuko blushed. Then remembered something.

"What is cultural immersion?"

Yue chuckled. "Well, it's supposed to mean surrounding yourself in a culture to learn more about it, but I was using it in the sense that we could spend time together, and get to know each other. Like a date." There was a lilt in her voice like it was supposed to mean something. Zuko was not in the loop.

"Oh," Zuko said like he knew was Yue was implying. He did not know. "Like a friend date."

Yue's voice was strained when she answered. "Yeah. Like a friend date." She noticed something. "Hey, there's a band playing." She pointed to a crowd of people around a group of players. The music was upbeat with a dancing tune.

Zuko brightened. "Yeah, they play sometimes. You know, there's an area where we can get away from the crowd." He pointed to a paved clearing off the main path. "Want to go?"

Yue smiled, but she looked nervous-excited. Zuko did not know how to interpret this. "Sure."

-

"Do you think they'll get together?" Ty Lee asked.

Mei sighed. "I really hope so. I bet they're making out right now, though."

"By the band?"

"By the band."

-

For what seemed like hours they danced and talked and laughed, and Zuko couldn't help but feel like every time he looked at her he fell for her a bit more. The music shifted to something slower, and they embraced, just enjoying each other's company in silence.

Yue leaned into Zuko, arms around his neck as they swayed to the faraway music. "Zuko, I have something to say." She said like she dare not break the moment.

"Yes?"

"I... Zuko I like you."

Zuko was confused. "I- Yeah, I like you too."

Yue shook her head against the fabric on Zuko's shoulder. "Zuko I like you. As more than a friend," she confessed.

Zuko stopped. "Like, romantically?"

Yue backed up to look into his eyes. "Yeah, romantically."

Panic flashed through Zuko. But he was messed up. She didn't know. "I... even with," he gestured to the left side of his face. Yue nodded.

"Even with your scar. Because it's a part of you and I like you."

Zuko shook his head in disbelief. "But, Yue, you don't know everything about me."

Yue smiled. "That's the thing, I know how you secretly love turtleducks, I know that you could go on for hours about theatre, I know how you're scared of becoming the Fire Lord." She reached a hand, slowly and deliberately, to cup the scarred side of his face. Zuko didn't pull away but put his hand on her's.

"Yue, I can't be with you unless you know... Yue, I'm transgender. I was born with a woman's body." The words felt like a confession. Like a crime, but he wouldn't feel guilty. This was who he was, and it wasn't going to change.

Yue was surprised but didn't pull away. "That's okay. I still like you for who you are, not what your body is." Zuko was thunderstruck. He felt the overwhelming urge to kiss her.

"Yue." 

"Yes?"

"Can I kiss you?" He whispered.

Yue smiled. "I thought you would never ask."

Kissing Yue was different than Zuko expected. He felt like he was on fire and drowning all at once. All he could focus on was the feeling of Yue's lips against his. They pulled away from each other slowly. Zuko felt a stupid grin form on his face.

"I like you."

"I like you too."

"Woo!!"

They both turned their heads toward the cheers. Ty Lee and Mei were a good distance away, both clapping, though Ty Lee's was much more enthusiastic.

"I thought you guys would never do it!!"

Zuko coloured red. "What the fuck, Mei?!" He noticed the Fire Flakes in her hands, which she was casually eating.

Mei shrugged. Ty Lee had stopped clapping and had started rambling. "I'm so happy for you two! You guys would have the cutest kids! I thought Zuko would stay single forever!"

"Hey! I wouldn't say forever." Yue rolled her eyes.

"I mean..."

"Not you too!!"

-

"Chief Arnook, forgive me for asking, but why do we have to be at the Fire Nation? This could just have easily been negotiated with ambassadors or even by Fire Nation messenger hawk." Master Pakku interrupted curtly.

Fire Lord Iroh and Chief Arnook exchanged a look before both laughing. Pakku kept a decidedly neutral face.

Fire Lord Iroh calmed down. "Well, if you were to simply observe Princess Yue and Prince Zuko, you would understand."

"Young love," Chief Arnook elaborated. "Additionally, Yue seems much more inclined for a political marriage with Prince Zuko than with Hahn."

"And I do not believe I have seen my nephew more enamoured with anyone else but Princess Yue. I saw him often wait around the Hawk lofts after sending messages to Princess Yue."

Chief Arnook nodded. "I thought it was only Yue. I do believe that a political marriage would be the correct route, though? For both nations and respective heirs?" Fire Lord Iroh signed the treaty in front of them.

"I do."

"Then it's settled." Cheif Arnook said as he signed the treaty as well. "Princess Yue and Crown Prince Zuko are now officially engaged."

**Author's Note:**

> Yue, looking at Zuko:
> 
> Zuko, oblivious: Hi
> 
> Yue, internally: I'm going to have to make the first move for everything, aren't I?


End file.
